Town of New Castle release:
Chappaqua Moms, a virtual Facebook community which includes over 6,800 members, is thrilled to present its first-ever “live” community event: SCREENAGERS: Growing Up in the Digital Age.
•Kids spend on average 6.5 hours a day on screens and that doesn’t include classroom or homework screen time.
•Boys spend on average the equivalent of 1.5 days on video games every week •Some recent studies show us that screen time increases dopamine production and causes behavior that mimics addiction.
During the frenetic yet optimistic fresh-new-notebook feeling of the first week back at school, we are inviting parents *along with* their children ages 10-18 to come view then talk about a topic that pervades all of our households. As seen on Good Morning America, SCREENAGERS: Growing Up in The Digital Age is selling out audiences around the country. SCREENAGERS is the first feature documentary to explore the impact of screen technology on kids and to offer parents proven solutions that work. SCREENAGERS is blazing a new model of distribution, known as a community viewing model, in hopes that parents and educators can start a conversation nationwide about how screen time impacts our lives.
Physician and filmmaker, Delaney Ruston decided to make SCREENAGERS when she found herself constantly struggling with her two kids about screen time. Ruston felt guilty and confused, not sure what limits were best, especially around mobile phones, social media, gaming, and how to monitor online homework. Hearing repeatability how other parents were equally overwhelmed, she realized this is one of the biggest, unexplored parenting issues of our time. Ruston turned the camera on her own family and others—revealing stories that depict messy struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Examples of stories, include Hannah’s, an 14-year old victim of social media bullying that stemmed from her trying to hide her use of social media from her mom. Issues are different for boys and girls, and the film also follows Andrew’s story, a straight-A student whose love of video games spins out of control when he goes off to college and lands in an internet rehab center.
Interwoven into these stories, are cutting edge science and insights from thought leaders such as Peggy Orenstein, Sherry Turkle, Simon Sinek, as well as leading brain scientists who present evidence on real changes happening in the brain. SCREENAGERS goes far beyond exposing the risks of screen time, but reveals multiple approaches on how parents and educators can work with kids to help them achieve a healthy amount of screen time.
Our moderators for the Wednesday September 7th event will be Audrey Mann Cronin, Dr. Benna Strober, Eileen Kenna, a 5th grade teacher at Bell, and Greeley Counselor Caroline D’Agastino. Our co-moderators for the Thursday September 8th event will be the Reverend Dr. Martha Jacobs and Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe.
Audrey Mann Cronin is a digital culture entrepreneur, a communications consultant, the founder of blog and Facebook community, Our Digital Daughters, the creator of mobile app LikeSo: Your Personal Speech Coach, and, most importantly, the mother of two Greeley teenagers.
Dr. Benna Strober is a child and adolescent psychologist in private practice in mount Kisco. She is an avid writer, sharing her knowledge and expertise on all things teens. By far, her biggest accomplishment and joy is being the mom of 3 Greeley daughters.
Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe serves as Senior Rabbi for Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester in Chappaqua, New York. He earlier served Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco from 2007-2014. In recent years, Rabbi Jaffe has served on the boards of the Jewish Community Federation’s Peoplehood Commission, the San Francisco Interfaith Coalition, and the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and has served as a regular columnist for the J Weekly newspaper. He currently serves as co-chair of the Chappaqua Interfaith Coalition.
The Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs is the Senior Minister at The First Congregational Church in Chappaqua. Prior to her coming to FCC, Martha was a professional hospital chaplain for more than 20 years, serving New York Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia Campus, and United Hospital in Port Chester, NY. Martha’s work involved providing care to patients and family members of all ages and religious beliefs. Her training included conflict and mediation skills.
This event is generously sponsored by Camp Breezemont, Armonk New York and the New Castle Arts & Culture Committee. All proceeds from ticket sales will be divided evenly among these 2 local charities: “Chappaqua Cares” and “A Kids’ Brain Tumor Cure”.
WHERE: Wallace Auditorium – Chappaqua Crossing, 480 Bedford Rd, Chappaqua
Sept 7th (7:15-9:15pm): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chappaqua-moms-presents-screenagers-growing-up-in-the-digital-age-tickets-26287338136
Sept 8th (7-9pm): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chappaqua-moms-presents-screenagers-growing-up-in-the-digital-age-tickets-26287391295
Movie Trailer: www.screenagersmovie.com<http://www.screenagersmovie.com>
Julie Scott, founder of Chappaqua Moms, stated “It’s ironic that the very thing that brings us together— in this case, the same screens featuring the Chappaqua Moms page on Facebook— is also causing consternation at home (Instagram/Snapchat/Games/texts etc.). The back-to-school week double-showing of the film Screenagers will hopefully serve a dual purpose of bringing our community together as well as provide some food-for-thought about teaching our kids how to better balance the need to be connected with the need to disconnect”.
Kimberly L. Gilman, Director of Development A Kids’ Brain Tumor Cure Foundation, stated “A Kids’ Brain Tumor Cure is thrilled to be chosen by Chappaqua Moms as one of the charities to benefit from the ticket sales to the ScreenAgers movie! Cancerous brain tumors are the #1 cancer related death in children. The mission of A Kids’ Brain Tumor Cure is to raise funds and awareness for scientific research leading to new, promising treatments and a cure for children’s brain cancer”.
Jessica Reinmann, co-founder of Chappaqua Cares, stated “I’m thrilled to be a beneficiary of this production. We are thankful that Chappaqua Moms has continued to be a place where we can rally the troops for those in need. Chappaqua Cares our mission is to connect local philanthropic organizations with residents in the community who want to help with fundraising, donation drives and by volunteering. Our goal is to broaden awareness of our neighbors in need and facilitate successful interactions between the community and these organizations.”
Town Board member Lisa Katz, who chairs the New Castle Arts & Culture Committee, stated “I am so excited that we are able to use the Wallace Auditorium to show SCREENAGERS. The Arts & Culture Committee is committed to expanding arts & culture throughout New Castle. This is especially important for our kids who are growing up in this digital age. The Wallace Auditorium will allow us to host so many great community events like this throughout the year”.
New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein stated ”I would like to thank the co-moderators of Chappaqua Moms,Julie Scott and Georgia Frasch, for bringing SCREENAGERS to our community. I would also like to thank Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe, Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs, Audrey Mann Cronin, Dr. Benna Strober, Kim Gilman & Jessica Reinmann for their help in organizing this incredible event. I look forward to the two showings of Screenagers & the discussion about the impact screen technology has on our lives and what we can do to find a healthy balance”.
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